Navy will name combat ship for Gabrielle Giffords

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is having a U.S. Navy ship named after her. (AP photo)

Gabrielle Giffords won’t be in Congress anymore. But she’ll soon be on the high seas.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday that the next Independence variant littoral combat ship in the U.S. Navy will be named in honor of the former Democratic representative from Arizona, who was seriously wounded in the Tucson shooting last year.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Defense, the sponsor of the USS Gabrielle Giffords will be Roxanna Green. Green is the mother of 9-year-old girl Christina Taylor-Green, who was killed in the shooting spree.

“I am pleased to honor Gabrielle Giffords and the people of Arizona with the naming of this ship,” said Mabus. “Giffords and the ship’s sponsor, Roxanna Green, are sources of great inspiration and represent the Navy and Marine Corps qualities of overcoming, adapting and coming out victoriously despite great challenges.”

The USS Gabrielle Giffords will be 419 feet long, have a waterline beam of 103 feet, displace around 3,000 tons, and make speed in excess of 40 knots. The ship will be designed to defeat growing littoral threats and provide access and dominance in the coastal waters.

The USS Gabrielle Giffords is the 17th ship to be named after a woman, and the 13th ship to be named after a living person since 1850.

Giffords resigned from Congress last month to concentrate on her physical rehabilitation efforts. She and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, live in League City.